


The Life and Times of Bobby Singer

by melancholicInspiration



Category: Supernatural
Genre: F/M, M/M, Other, basically a biographical piece on Bobby, expositionary piece here, there will be sads
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-18
Updated: 2016-09-24
Packaged: 2018-08-09 05:05:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7787788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melancholicInspiration/pseuds/melancholicInspiration
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are things that have happened that noone would guess. That noone expected to have happened. Bobby certainly wasn't expecting to hunt down supernatural monsters instead of just being a mechanic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Rough Childhood

**Author's Note:**

> I have been informed that certain names etc are different in canon. This fic is as close to canon as I can get though.

Robert Elias Singer was born to Edward and Emily Singer on March 21st 1950, in a small town in North Dakota. The Singer Salvage yard, which also did car repairs on the side, was a few minutes outside the town proper but that never bothered the young couple and their newborn son. Suffice to say, perhaps a Salvage yard was not the best place for a child but Robert still enjoyed playing around and exploring there after school. Whenever he got a scrape on a rusted car part or on the ground as he ran around, his mother like all mothers tend to do, patched him up and told him how dangerous it was to play around bits of metal like that. His father usually gave a wry grin from his newspaper when he wasn't busy working on a new repair job or trying to organize the scrap from the good material.

As a child, Robert stuck out a bit from the kids in his class, being above average in height and always reading a book - usually about mechanics or something related to his father's work. There was never any rule against bringing books from home into class, or reading during recess, but he noticed sometimes the other kids gave him looks that he didn't quite understand. They hardly ever approached him, and the teachers just patted him on the head when they saw him curled up in class and reading something. It wasn't _always_ a mechanical book, but those were the ones that he enjoyed the most. 

Over the years, Robert had built up a little routine for himself and the list of books that he had read got longer and longer. The first time that he picked up a wrench and asked his father if he could help with a repair, his father almost smiled at him before shaking his head and saying it was too difficult for him. It took a few times, but Robert had eventually got the chance to fix a car with his father. They went on hunting trips and his dad not only gave him his first rifle, which was a bit unwieldy for him at the time, and showed him how to use it. Robert smiled so much on that day that his mouth hurt for hours afterwards, even though they didn't go on many hunts afterwards.

He remembered the first time that he saw the bruises on his mother, tell-tale blotches of yellow and purple dotting her arms when her shawl slipped down from her shoulders. She was setting the table for dinner and he was just finishing up his homework from school that day, but he couldn't focus on it now. "Mom, what happened to your arm?"

Emily gave a start, as if she hadn't expected anyone to notice or even say anything about it, putting a smile on her face as if nothing was wrong. "Oh, it's nothing sweetie. Don't worry about it."

Robert furrowed his brows, worried that something had hurt his mother. "But mom..."

Emily's smile turned strict as she moved closer to him and patted him on the shoulder. "It's okay, Robbie. Mummy's fine."

Something about her smile and the bruises made him suspicious that it wasn't okay, but he let it drop as he packed up his homework and went to put it in his room. Maybe he had been overreacting, seeing things. Even though Robert didn't know what to think of the strange marks on his mother, he had begun to notice more and more things. When there wasn't a new repair for his dad to do, he often drank and watched the television in their living room. Most of the time he seemed to stew in whatever bad mood he was in, and apart from the first couple times, Robert had learned to avoid him when he was like that. His mom often tried to get him to get off the couch and into the scrapyard or into bed for the night, and they would get into a fight. It was hard for the young boy to sleep through the fights, but he didn't dare leave his room - although he wanted to help his mother. Protect her somehow from his dad's rages. 

Robert started to stay home more often over the next couple months, following his mom around and helping her with the laundry or with the dishes. Trying to show her that he didn't want her to be hurt, that he didn't want her to be alone, even if it was a bit more complicated than he knew. Ed didn't need much help in the scrapyard, and Robert had asked, once in a while getting yelled at to go away and do his homework. The fights continued, and even Robert got in the middle of them a few times, getting a rough punch to his shoulder on one occasion.

After he got that bruise to his shoulder, his mom came into his small bedroom and sat on his bed, the tear stains still on her cheeks. She patted him on the head and he tried to smile. "Robbie, you don't have to protect me from your father."

Robert bit his lip at that, a small childish scowl on his face. "He hurt you. He gave you those bruises."

Emily shook her head and held him close. _How do you tell your child that what was once a loving relationship wasn't anymore?_ "I love you Robbie."

"Love you too mom."

 

Family dinners had begun to grow tense in the Singer household, and Robert - while not the most talkative of kids - refused to say anything to his father. Not even about school. Ed asked him to pass him a bottle of whiskey, but due to the spilled alcohol on the outside of the bottle, it slipped out of his hands and crashed on the floor. "You break everything you touch Robert!" His father yelled at him, the beginnings of a spiraling rage, and turned on his mother when she came forward with a broom and dustpan. "Do you think you can teach him not to be so useless?!" He screamed at her as he grabbed her upper arm, not noticing that Robert had run out of the room. "You spoiled him so much, he hasn't learned a damn thing!" The sentence was punctuated by him throwing Emily against the wall. 

Emily cried out in pain when she hit the cabinets in front of the wall, sliding down to the floor and trying to cover her face from Ed. He grabbed her hair when she did and she cried out again, crying for him to stop, to let go. Robert came back to see this in full view in front of him, holding the rifle that his father gave him and pointed it at the man. Edward turned when Emily gave a gasp of "Robbie, no!" and threw her down into the kitchen tiles. 

"You little shit, who do you think you are?!" He bellowed at Robert, who didn't move an inch, focusing on shooting him. The only thoughts drumming through his mind were _"Stop him from doing it, stop him from hurting us"_ until it was louder than any part of his mind that could have argued against that logic. It was even silencing Edward's screams of how pathetic his mother and him were.

The only sound his mind registered was the sound of his father's body hitting the floor and his mother crying over the body, unable to deal with the shock of what had just happened. When he realized it, Robert dropped the gun and time stood still. He had wanted to protect his mother, wanted to protect himself, but he didn't want to be a murderer.

 

He didn't want _**this.**_


	2. Adolescense in the 60s

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The fallout of the events of the last chapter and some introspection of what Bobby might have been like as a teenager. 
> 
> Also, awkward first kiss stories are very awkward.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will be a little bit of time skipping in this chapter and likely subsequent chapters. I'll try to keep it to a minimum for the sake of the story. 
> 
> Also I imagine Bobby was about 10-12 during the events of the last chapter so this will take place around him being thirteen.

There was not much of a funeral for Edward Singer, but there was one. It was a closed casket affair and hardly anyone said a word beyond "My condelences" to Robert's mother. She accepted it with a wry smile and a teary nod, still suffering from shock from her late husband's death even though it didn't show to anyone else. Now that it was only her and her only son, Emily felt the profound loss accompanied with the affair. 

In the following weeks, Robert also was struggling with what he had done, and knowing that he would be arrested for what he had done. He had begun spending more and more time away from the house and Scrapyard, needing to be away from the place that was the home of perhaps his biggest mistake. Though when he returned, often in the early evening, he always jumped in to help his mother with whatever she asked. 

A profound silence overcame the two of them; and in that silence there was no more of the cute nicknames from his mother, no more of the hair ruffles that he had once sought comfort in. Edward had not been the best husband or father to either of them, but Robert was beginning to see that he had very little ability to comfort his mother. Apologies healed only surface wounds, even though he had put that rifle away in his closet and sworn to himself never to touch it again. The rifle had become tainted to him, and he couldn't bear to see the pain on his mother's face if he picked it up again. 

Robert remembered the look on her face when he picked it up and aimed it at his father, the shock and the fear struck a solemn chord within him. Even more he remembered the bruises and the cuts he would see on her from time to time, and knowing now that she wouldn't be hurt again was not enough of a panacea for the regret in his soul. 

Even throughout high school, he carried the secret burden of being starkly different to his peers. Robert doubted any of them had the circumstances he did, and if the teasing of having lost his father were anything to go by, they never would know what it would be like. He envied them but not for wanting his father back, but to be able to joke about other kids like that with no knowledge of what had really happened to them. He envied how they could just go to school then go out with their friends, with no care about what was happening at home. 

 

Robert spent more than a few moments watching the other high school boys from afar, convinced it was just curiosity and that the occasional sting of envy was due to wanting friends and nothing more than that. It wasn't until his second year at high school - and puberty hitting him a bit later than some of his peers - that he realized that he found some of these boys attractive in more than just liking how they looked. 

This development made him a bit more shy, though the affect on puberty made him a bit more handsome, especially towards the girls at school. Robert noticed them too, but it didn't get him as flustered when one of the taller and more handsome boys so much as glanced in his direction. 

Robert's schoolwork continued as it always was, good enough to get high marks in classes but not high enough to get any sort of recognition. His mother would always praise him when he brought home a good mark on a test or assignment, which he took as a signal that things were slowly getting back to normal.

Even though Robert had thought repeatedly of telling his mother about his preference for other boys, there was the lingering feeling that maybe he should keep it to himself. Emily had been through too much already and putting this on top of it wouldn't end well. 

She deserved to know didn't she? 

~~~ 

The day of Robert's first kiss was uneventful, just like most other school days, but he was looking forward to the weekend anyways. The weekends were days that he could go anywhere around the house and he had been tinkering with a malfunctioning engine in the scrapyard to occupy his thoughts. 

When he was leaving school that day, he noticed dark storm clouds overhead and a rumble of thunder. Robert was never really afraid of thunderstorms but it made him nervous either way, since he had to walk home.  

There was a group of seniors hanging out by one of the exits by the school laughing and presumably smoking something. Robert gave them a curious look, to which they unfortunately noticed before going into a huddle and whispering. Knowing it wasn't likely about him, or anything that good in the off chance that it was, he turned and continued walking. 

"Hey Singer!" One of the boys called, a much taller boy smoking a cigarette. When Robert turned to look at him his stomach flipped over, though whether it was due to imminent danger or something else, he wasn't able to tell. "Come here, we want to show ya something." 

 Robert looked up at the boy, obviously nervous but it hadn't started raining yet. Maybe he could be a little late getting home, nothing that bad could possibly happen in a few minutes right? He eventually nodded and followed the boy over. 

There was a group of about five or six kids from school, laughing and giggling with a glass bottle in between them on the ground. Robert had heard of this game, there were stories that bounced around school about it, and his interest at playing it for the first time had won out against any hesitation that he should have had. "So you wanna join in Singer, or are you gonna run back home?" Another boy teased him and his heart flipped in its cage. 

"I'm in." Regardless of who he actually kissed, or who kissed him, he wanted to try it. Wanted to know what this kissing business was about, mature a little bit in the way these boys had. One of the girls kneeled down before sitting back on her ankles and the others followed suit, with Robert sitting last. The girl reached over to the glass bottle and spun it, with all of them sitting and grinning in the hopes of coping a feel, or something more innocent in Robert's case. It didn't land on him the first time, or the second, but watching the other kiss - and a bit more than kissing - was interesting. Having never had seen it happen even in the movies, and never having kissed anyone before, the new boy was definitely into picking up whatever he could.

Then the bottle landed on him and the girl sitting diagonally from him and his face went a shade of pink that it had never gone before. The boy to his right nudged his shoulder and cheered while the girl grinned at him, and after him hesitatingly moving closer, she closed the gap and kissed him on the lips. Robert's mind went pleasantly blank when he felt her lips, chapped and soft, against his own. He subconsciously pressed his lips back against hers, but shortly after it was over and he sat back down. Would they kick him out after he 'won' the game? Not that this was a game that one could win, but the anxiety returned even as they both sat back down. A different boy spun the bottle which alleviated his moment of concern about leaving, but the thunder booming overhead signified that the game wouldn't last long. The space under the metal stairs on the side of the school didn't allot for much cover from the rain.

The next time it landed on Bobby, it was pointing to one of the handsome boys. His cheeks didn't flush in embarrassment this time, but the slight thrill of expectation of something to happen had his heart beating more loudly than he could ever recall before this. Would the boy go through with this? Wasn't this only so the boys could kiss the girls??? Robert was pleasantly mistaken when the boy leaned over and kissed his cheek, shortly before the sky opened up and the rain started coming down. Hard. 

The group all panicked at the sudden downpour, grabbing the bottle and putting it away and covering themselves before running off for home. Luckily, it wasn't a cold rain and even if it was, Robert didn't mind a walk in the rain after such a good event, walking home with a bit of a bounce in his step.


End file.
